So many ridiculous takes, both on r/nba and in this sub, that I feel like need to be addressed:
• “The Celtics have no depth now.”
The bench guys that filled out our primary 8-man rotation last playoffs were Rob, Brogdon, and Grant. However, Hauser and PP both received significant minutes as well and held their own. Our 8-man group this year will likely be JT/Jaylen/KP/Jrue/Horford/White/Hauser/PP. That’s a ridiculous rotation. Sure, that group isn’t as big as last year, but they can shoot the lights out, and remember– this roster is getting overhauled in part to accommodate Mazz’s vision for the group, which is going to have a heavier focus on offense and shooting than Udoka did. We still aren’t going to lack for defense and there are more interesting wing pieces (Brisset, Stevens, Walsh) who are versatile and can sop up plenty of quality regular season minutes. I’ll be honest… I just don’t see a depth drop-off. It’s okay to acknowledge that we might take a small step back defensively but we have a legit chance to be the league’s best offense this year. And that’s because of our whole roster, not just the top 6.
• “With Time Lord gone, the Celtics don’t have a Giannis stopper anymore.”
[Watch the highlights from our best defensive possessions on Giannis from the 2022 series.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3nBAaUHnzc&ab_channel=TomaszKordylewski) See anything interesting? There are almost zero possessions of Time Lord guarding Giannis 1-on-1. What you’ll see repeatedly is one Celtics defender checking Giannis in transition or penetration (usually Al, Grant, or Smart… but sometimes others), and as soon as his initial attack is slowed, a second defender immediately comes to help. Sometimes that defender is Rob, but usually it’s just whoever is closest to bother his dribble or prevent him from that massive wrap-around step we’re used to seeing. The Celtics’ ability to make Giannis less efficient has had as much to do with strategy as it does personnel, and there is still personnel here to make his life difficult. Time Lord was great, but he was far from the Giannis secret sauce.
• “There’s no real difference between Marcus Smart and Jrue Holiday.”
Look, I love Marcus as much as the next guy; I’m still not over him being gone. But pretending Jrue isn’t a more impactful/complete player than Marcus Smart is just operating in total absence of reality. Jrue has always been nearly his equal defensively (just as good at point-of-attack defense and probably slightly worse at switching/roaming/versatility), and there’s simply no comparison on offense. Jrue just averaged 19/7/5 on 48/38/86. Those are numbers with efficiency that Peak Marcus couldn’t dream of touching. People keep bringing up playoff averages, but Jrue was asked to be Milwaukee’s second-best player with Middleton’s struggles and had to create way more offense than would be ideal. The looks he’ll get on this squad are going to be ungodly high-quality. Jrue is a better player than Smart in a vacuum, and he’s going to be better for the way this team wants to play, too… especially in April/May/June.
• “Celtics have no injury insurance.”
This one grinds my gears. NOBODY has injury insurance. If we don’t have KP for the playoffs, yeah, we’re probably screwed. If we lose JT or JB, we’re royally screwed. If Al falls off a cliff, we’re screwed. Now copy/paste this to every single contender in the league. If Milwaukee loses any of Giannis, Dame, Middleton, or Lopez, they are screwed… and oh by the way, this has happened to them in each of the last two seasons. If Miami loses Jimmy, they are screwed. LBJ or AD for the Lakers? Screwed. Jokic or Murray for Denver? Screwed. Philly is probably screwed anyway, but yeah, if they lose Embiid, they are doubly screwed. The “injury insurance” argument is just as applicable to everyone else as us.
Don’t believe any of these weak-sauce arguments if you see them. Boston should be seen as the clear favorites in the East. Let’s Banner 18 Boogie.
by booyah81
20 Comments
I love Luke kornet but I need Brad to upgrade that 3rd big to theis
It’s still a little funny how Thanasis is more untouchable than Jrue. I know he’s a carry on with little, if any oncourt value, but still.
EDIT: Oh my god, the replies. It’s like there’s a disconnect in your brains lmao. I never compared these 2 as players, let alone as trade pieces for Dame. Just who’s more likely to stay with the Bucks.
My favorite is the “Marcus was their heart and soul. They can’t win without him” …uhhhh they also weren’t getting over the hump with him. It’s always sad to lose players you love but I’m glad Brad will do the hard stuff to try and win a championship.
This subreddit is filled with crazy people. Are you just now realizing this?
Just wait til you see most of those dudes have flairs of Heat, Lakers and Sixers 🤣 just go to the Heat sub you can see the copium there that we got worse
I don’t get the depth argument either. Denver is 7 players deep. Phoenix is 7-8 deep. Milwaukee is 7 players deep.
But depth in itself is overrated. What is more important is getting utility players to guard guys like Embiid and Giannis. Brad’s obviously cooking something up to get a strong physical back up center.
Being extremely low on the Celtics basically requires you to assume most/all of the following:
– Porzingis’s improvement last year was fake, also he’ll always be injured
– This is the year Horford becomes washed
– Holiday will continue to undershoot his regular season 3p% by a gazillion points in the playoffs
– We will get zero effective rotation minutes from all of the half dozen bench guys we signed, AND Pritchard and Hauser.
– No internal improvement from anyone
Maybe some of these things happen, but people are acting like all of them are more or less a given. Yes, if absolutely everything goes wrong we’ll be worse than we were last year. But that’s true for every other team in the league.
And guess what. If everything DOES go wrong, we still have the flexibility to make moves at the deadline – unlike most of our rivals.
I do think the bench is pretty unproven and I’m not sold on hauser being anything more than a shooter if we’re giving actual minutes to Svi Idk how to feel
Hey, thanks for taking the time to write this up. The depth/injury portions are especially true. If if if…if something happens to any team, they will have to deal with it.
Well done, I agree. Can’t wait for…March when all this will actually matter, haha
Correct on all fronts.
These are all threads in this sub too btw. Green teamers never want to let any of their players go
Of course there’s a depth dropoff. You traded three rotation guys to get two, plus Grant luft. That’s two vacancies in your core group. Now, you’ have a better starting five, which is the tradeoff. I think we’ll be okay, but we’re clearly thinner.
Edit: Also, no one who watched a single game against the Bucks would ever say Rob was a Giannis stopper. That’s laughable
People don’t realize how crucial rob was on defense. No Giannis might not have went 1on1 against rob much, but rob stopped guys from even *trying* to score in the paint
I look at all these takes, which for all I know could be correct, as a positive. People won’t take us seriously, which is always good to be underestimated. Also because it will unite the team to rally around the disrespect card, leaving them with something to prove. The play of our team last season, consistently losing to teams we should beat, really bothered me. This season is more of an unknown and the team should be more hungry. Curious to see how long it takes to gel and how the pieces fit together. I just know we had multiple chances to win it all with Smart, Rob and Grant and never did, so let’s see how the new pieces work and try our chances with them.
Exactly this. People are talking like it’s just a given that there’s absolutely no way Porzingis will be healthy.
On the depth one I still feel Brad needs to trade picks to get a decent guard/wing backup. Maybe sign someone like Dwight to help deal with the Bucks size too
– Depth is overrated, NBA fans just use as an excuse to inflate the strength of their mediocre team, this is why Lakers fans have been using it all offseason. If people actually watched the games, they’d recognize pretty quickly that the best teams (i.e. the ones that win in the playoffs) have 6-8 guys MAX (closer to 6) that can make a positive impact in a playoff game. Outside of that, no one matters, at least in the playoffs.
– Time Lord is an ELITE help defender and he will definitely be missed, but this idea that Giannis is some God who can’t be stopped is pretty ridiculous imo. The Celtics have done a good job defending him over the past few seasons and that won’t change.
– Jrue is unquestionably a better player, but he has dropped off in the playoffs in recent years, but I think a lot of it has to do with role. He will fit in much better as the 4th option on the Celtics as opposed to the 3rd option on the Bucks. This is such a massive difference.
– Last one you are totally right on. This is an argument that can be made for any team. Ironically, I think the Celtics are one of the few contenders that actually have “injury insurance” just given how stacked they are.
You really expect a Lakers/GSW driven community to be happy the Celtics got better
just like the kp trade this all seems pointless as brad clearly isn’t done cooking yet. I can PROMISE you pp will not be in the 8 man playoff rotation. the trade deadline is in february and the season hasn’t even started yet! just try to relax and save this talk for after the trade deadline it’s all pointless now
Lol this shit is so predictable.
Narrative when Jrue is on the Bucks and Smart is on the Celtics: “Jrue is way better. Only delusional Celtics fans think they’re equal.”
Narrative when Smart is traded and Jrue is on the Celtics: “they’re equal. Only delusional Celtics fans think Jrue is better.”